Problems with digital camera media

90blkbrd

Registered User
I recently had problems with my digital camera setup while I was on vacation. Olympus (maker of the camera) and Lexar (maker of the 256 MB xD card) were of little help. After a little experimenting I figured out that the xD card was causing the problems.

I didn't want to loose any photos, so I started looking on the internet for software that could recover the pictures. I found a lot of them, but only one that was free.

http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

But it wouldn't find my *.mov (Quicktime motion JPEG) This company also has a file recovery tool that found the file and restored it for me.

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

I was able to recover all of the photos from my vacation, plus any other photos on the card that hadn't been written over.

I then formatted the card with my computer and then the camera would accept it again. It did require another format by the camera though.

I hope this can help anyone else that has had the same problem as I did.


Michael
 
Delete ALL

90blkbrd said:
I then formatted the card with my computer and then the camera would accept it again. It did require another format by the camera though.
Most dig. cams. rewrite necessary files to the media, after they format the media. Your computer won't do that because it doesn't have the files. Only the camera knows what it needs. This is also why you must be careful when you DELETE or REMOVE files from your dig. media. If you DELETE ALL, you will also delete the files that the camera uses. Yeah, I found this out the Hard Way!!!!!!!!

68COUGAR
 
THANKS for the Info .........

90blkbrd said:
I recently had problems ..... after a little experimenting I figured out that the xD card was causing the problems.I then formatted the card with my computer and then the camera would accept it again. It did require another format by the camera though.I hope this can help anyone else that has had the same problem as I did.-Michael
EXCELLENT information ..... I have decided not to EVER remove the card from the camera. The only time I had problems is when I took it out to have some pics printed! Thanks again! :D
 
68COUGAR said:
Most dig. cams. rewrite necessary files to the media, after they format the media. Your computer won't do that because it doesn't have the files. Only the camera knows what it needs.

My camera wouldn't even operate. It couldn't handle the fact that the file allocation table had been corrupted. Little known fact, digital cameras use FAT as a way to store the data. When I let my computer format it, it put back the file allocation tables. Then the camera would operate, but it was missing the directories, that it then wrote back to on the media.

68COUGAR said:
If you DELETE ALL, you will also delete the files that the camera uses. Yeah, I found this out the Hard Way!!!!!!!!

The software that I posted above could have recovered the missing pictures from the media, if you hadn't taken another picture that would have written over the top of the deleted picture.

In my case the file allocation table had been corrupted, the pictures were still there, but the camera and computer wouldn't see them because they use the table to extract the data. This software doesn't depend on the table, it goes looking at the raw data and finds them.
 
Michael
Thanks for the program tip
Had a zip disc that decided it didn't want to be recognized.
Used the pcinspector and was able to recover about 95%. Nice program. I usually go to www.download.com and find the freeware. But it is better when somebody else has already tried a program.
Thanks again
Take care and have a safe 4th
dbd
 
Something that I discovered was not to download the photos with just the batteries in the camera. Make sure the AC adapter is used. If the batteries go dead during the download it can kill the card permanently. I also have an xD USB card reader and if I leave the card in it during a reboot of the computer I have to delete all of the photos before the computer can read them again even though the camera can read them just fine.
 
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